Shaenon K. Garrity's Journal

Pixel-Stained Technopeasants
A whole bunch of LJ people are pissed off about this rant by a sci-fi writer no one's heard of, in which he complains that writers who post their work for free online are cutting into the livelihood of writers who try to make a living by publishing in print. Many people are declaring Monday "Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day" and vowing to post fiction in retaliation.

As dopey as the screed is--like sales of the latest China Mieville novel are going to be seriously undermined by my boss Harry Potter fanfic where Snape totally rides his own dragon--and as happy as I am to be a cartoonist and writer who works mostly on the Web, I find that I can't get too excited about actively campaigning for my "right" to provide people with free entertainment.

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